Pitt defensive coordinator Randy Bates ready to pump up players

Randy Bates is a cancer survivor who spent quarantine “sitting in my living room thinking about weird things I’m going to do” when Pitt opens training camp.

So why wouldn’t you expect the Panthers’ 60-year-old defensive coordinator to use a water pump that looked like it came from the Civil War to motivate his players?

“As I get into two-a-days and they get whiny and crappy, I pull out the pump,” Bates said.

The idea is to motivate players to keep pumping, keep working, keep preparing in an attempt to build, perhaps, Pitt’s best defense in the Pat Narduzzi era, even after defensive tackle Jaylen Twyman announced Saturday he is opting out to return home and prepare for the 2021 NFL Draft.

“You have to keep pumping because what do you want?” Bates said. “You want water, right? But if you stop because you haven’t had water, you know where the water goes? It goes back down and you have to start over again.

“And you have to have faith that the water is going to come out at some point.”

Bates said the pump is one of his many motivational props and tactics.

“I got a million stupid things like that,” he said.

Bates declined to reveal where he found the pump, but he did say, “It’s just a year younger than me.”

Perhaps that kind of old-school thinking is what Pitt’s defensive players need. They have talent and experience, but also lots of work to do — plenty of pumping — to get to where the team can challenge for an ACC championship.

The good news is Pitt appears to be equipped to handle adversity, especially on defense. Eight starters return from last season, plus defensive end Rashad Weaver and tackle Keyshon Camp, who would have started if not for injuries.

Four players with starting experience are back in the secondary, even after Pitt lost cornerback Dane Jackson, a seventh-round draft choice of the Buffalo Bills.

Safeties Damar Hamlin and Paris Ford and cornerbacks Damarri Mathis and Jason Pinnock recorded 39 pass breakups and seven interceptions last season.

“I’m blessed to be a part of it,” Hamlin said of pairing with Ford, who was first-team All-ACC last season. “He makes plays happen not everyone can do.

“I would always tell him you’re going to be an All-American after this season.”

Bates said Hamlin, who was Pitt’s second-leading tackler last season behind Ford, brings more than football skills to the locker room.

“He gives me experience, leadership and all the intangibles that come with that,” he said. “When (teammates) listen to him and all of our older leaders, I think the younger kids embrace it better when they hear it from their peers than when they hear it from me.

“He passes that experience off to Paris. They feed off each other. There are days they get me juiced up.”

Yet, if covid-19 allows college football to happen this season, players might have more work to do than in a normal season

“I believe there’s going to be a lot of bad football this year,” Bates said, speaking generally across the nation.

Pitt had only three days of spring drills — some teams had none — and 2 ½ months of quarantine at home is a significant departure from the norm for college athletes. The coronavirus already has forced some teams to curtail workouts.

“Who knows how many days a week they’re going to be able to tackle and take on blocks?” Bates said. “Those basic things in football you have to do daily to be great at them.

“The thing I hope, I pray, that happens, we do have experience. Maybe we’re going to be able to be lucky enough to do a little bit less of that and still be good at it.”

Bates said devising defensive schemes doesn’t help if players can’t tackle.

“Scheme, it’s all good, but you’re going to see a lot of missed tackles you would hope you’d not see in football.”

Even if games are played, Bates noted the unpredictability of the virus could impact the season. Already, Jackson has spent time on the Bills’ covid list.

“What if Bates on Thursday turns up with covid and is not here for the game? I told the guys, you’d probably celebrate,” he said.

But what if an important player tests positive?

“Damar Hamlin comes on Thursday with covid,” Bates said. “Are we going to embrace it or are we going to put our heads down and say, we don’t have a good chance now? Who the heck knows what’s going to happen?

“The team that has success is the team that’s not going to whine about it. They’re going to embrace it and find a way to win.”

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